XV
by Morhighan
Summary: Just a Oneshot about a Sephiroth clone's #15 last day alive. Including an escape from Nibelheim, trying to find mother and having a close encounter with a glass tank and "Father." Oh, not to mention the Clone is less than 10 years old.


Standard disclaimer, only XV belongs to ME. No, she actually isn't Morhighan or Yui, despite sharing Morhi's number. But that's alright with me.

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XV

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Sephiroth Clone XV made its way up the craggy mountain. Its caretaker had no clue that it had escaped, but even as It made its way up the slope, It could hear the siren going off now. The clone quickened its pace, if only a little bit, and continued on its journey. It had left about an hour before, while the caretakers were having a meeting. Its companions had done nothing, just watched as it left. The others never did anything anymore. They had before, but that was no longer important. It and they just waited.

It had been a little girl once. But It had forgotten all but the number. Fifteen. 15. XV. On Its neck. The day It, XV was created was the day, burnt black and bathed in blood; He brought XV to the mansion. That's when It became XV. Him…_Father?_ The word flashes unexpectedly into XV's mind. That's what XV's companions, sisters and brothers sometimes called him. Even mother referred to him that way, only it seemed to XV that she was laughing when she said it, like it was a pet name but not the truth. XV stopped a moment. Did none of the others perceive that? She resumed walking. Something must be wrong with her. That's why there were always so many tests.

It was a test week, XV realized. So Father would be coming. XV hoped it would not disappoint him. It didn't want to fail. It tried to think why it was walking again. For Mother…but why here? It remembered that He said Mother was in the reactor. XV didn't feel Mother there, but it would try to find Her anyway. It didn't know where Mother would be, but It knew where the reactor was, and that Mother had been held there. The journey went on.

Finally XV had reached the reactor. The alarms had been going off incessantly earlier, but they had now stopped. It thought that this was odd. They had not found It, so why had the alarms stopped? No matter…

XV entered the reactor and made its way through the complex system until it reached the door. It could sense that this was where Mother had been. Could She be hiding from it? The door was broken, so XV squeezed through the gap. The chamber XV entered; with the "JENOVA" above its doorframe was definitely where Mother had been. A warm green light pulsed upwards, floating Its hair around and providing a small amount of light. Wires and pipes decorated the metal room, which was light green, and XV could see a large tank in the back of the room. XV made its way shakily across the tremulous bridge onto the platform.

Mother was long gone now; XV could tell that was where She had been. It walked up to the tank, tenderly touching the glass. Its feet were cut by the glass fragments that were strewn about the floor, but It didn't mind. Whoever had taken Mother had done it in a hurry, not bothering to pick up the mess. Careless. It was now pressed against the glass, moving along the rim of the circular tank. Above it was a large maw where the glass had been broken from the tank. XV took an interest in the breaks, ignoring the blood flowing across the floor with each step.

Suddenly a great deal of grief seized XV. It—no, she was in despair. What had she been thinking coming up here? They would catch her…why didn't she escape now while she could? The bad people had mind washed her, but being away from the others gave her a moment of clarity. But it was too late, the little girl realized as she turned around. That's when she saw him, the one those fools had called 'Father.' How could they be so ignorant? The noise from his opening the door had attracted her attention, but there was nothing she could do now to attempt an escape. She pressed herself closer to the glass as he observed her before walking deliberately up the bridge towards her. She glanced at the glass crack once more, then down to her bloody feet. Perhaps there was a way…

'Father' had almost reached the platform, when the little girl had made up her mind. She stood back from the glass, her arms outstretched to hold it as she faced it. 'Father' stopped, uncertain of her next move. And the little girl's head collided with the glass, cracking the already weakened frame more. 'Father' made towards her to stop her from damaging herself, but not before her tiny skull collided a second and a third time into the glass. The second impact shattered the glass, leaving shards in her hair, her face, her skull, and the third impact enforced those shards with more and pressed them all deeper into her head. Blood was everywhere as her petite form collided with the ground.

As the 'Mother's' cells became active to heal the detrimental wound, the little girl reverted back into the mindless clone—XV.

As Father came near XV, It stared at Him. Knowing that The Cells would enable the subject to survive, he lifted it off of the ground.

"What were you thinking just now, XV?" He asked the Clone, who hung off his harm limply as blood trickled in a seemingly endless flow down its face. "You'll never see 'Mother' that way." His tone was mocking but the Clone looked up at him anxiously nevertheless.

He observed that XV's eyes had reverted back to the way they had been a year before. _Human._ They flitted back to the JENOVA form, but then the Clone began to croak.

"Mother…?" It asked looking at him while stepping back on to its own feet once more.

"Yes?" He asked. The Clones were so repetitive, and this would probably turn out to be one of those instances, but he listened anyway. Judging by XV's strange behavior, something could be changing in the Clones, and as the youngest, it could be experiencing it before the others.

XV took a step back, glancing at him. It made a noise. "Fa--"

"What was that?" He was interested. A Clone had never been reported to say _that _before.

"—ther. Father."

"What about 'Father'?" The Clone kept backing away, towards the ledge. He stepped forward.

The eyes were human once more. "You're not…our…Father. Despite what she says."

"Excu--" He was interrupted as the Clone suddenly threw itself off the ledge, into the boiling Mako below. There was no chance of it surviving. He watched as the small frame plummeted and was eaten up by the Mako.

_Where are Father and Mother?_

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Shin-Ra Electric Power Company

Biological Sciences Department

File: 1636367

Subject: Nibelheim, Sephiroth Clone Project

Confidential, High Security File

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Test Subject: Sephiroth Clone XV

Status: Deceased

Report:

At Nibelheim Reactor a Test Subject XV—Female, Five Years—disposed of itself through self destruction. Stress caused the subject to attempt suicide through propelling its cranium into glass before flinging itself over the ledge of the platform, into Mako, and dying.

XV was the last juvenile Subject of the Sephiroth Clone project. (See files 1636354-1636366 for details on their annihilation.)

Analysis: Specimen XV --Failure.

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End of Report

Filed by

Professor Hojo

Head of Biological Resources Department

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FIN


End file.
